Skunks Misery Road

“Blog!” she insisted. “You have to start blogging. Let people know what you’ve got.”  I argued briefly, kicked my feet in the dust and offered barricades that included—I’m already writing a ton of stuff all day, work keeps me too busy, family commitments and there’s something good on TV. “Get over it,” she advised.

Okay, so I am taking the challenge and creating a blog. I did so grudgingly at first, but I did have an inspiring moment aside from that push over the edge by the insistent  Vicki Lindgren Rimasse who can simultaneously Facebook, blog, tweet, text and make eggplant parmesan. I know she’ll read this. After all, she is the viral wizard of social networking. 

Last evening I received an email through my website, tomgahan.com simply titled, Skunks Misery Road. Yes, such a place exists. The writer had come across my name in an elsewhere blog that commented on the most unusual names in the region. No, not my name—but the names of streets. Gail was her name. Gail explained and that she was researching the origins of the road’s name and stumbled across mine. I had submitted to the blog that indeed Skunks Misery Road was an oddity worthy of top honors. There were other contenders such as Bread and Cheese Hollow Road  and Whiskey Road.  In the end the blogger http://www.bygoneli.com/forums/entry.php/5-A-skunk-by-any-other-name... seemed to agree.  A name like Skunks Misery Road is just too good to pass up.

A few Google clicks later and Gail arrived at my virtual doorstep. Once inside she ordered a copy of my novel in eBook form.   “I learned about Skunks Misery Road during a family Sunday drive,” she wrote.  Coincidently, so did I. In later years, although still in my relative youth, I revisited the road many times during “cruise nights” in the area, the North shore of Long Island in Nassau County, New York.  Hot nights, hot cars and memories now fade in the rearview mirror. Gail explained that she now lived in the UK and couldn’t find my novel, Harmony Bay, at the local bookstore, so ordered the eBook on-line. That was fine with me. “It looks like my kind of book,” she said.

If nothing else, this episode shows how small the world has become via the internet, how we sometimes connect with people in the oddest way and… that I really should create a blog of my own.  

Thanks for the memories Skunks Misery Road and thank you for reading.